Maya after War

"A significant contribution to Mesoamerican ethnography and social scientific studies of violence and its aftermath... Burrell engages the major social forces (violence, migration, neoliberalism) that have affected the Highland Guatemala region. Her multilevel analysis of conflict is sorely needed within anthropology in general and regional ethnography in particular." -- Thomas A. Offit, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Baylor University "Burrell's ethnography depicts the contradictions and competing interests that emerge among residents of a Maya town adjusting to life 'after war.' Neoliberalism, insecurity, conflict, democracy-the key words of the twenty-first century can all be found here, cannily interpreted through an ethnographic lens that situates global issues in the daily realities of people struggling to make a life amidst loss, anger, and grief. The book is essential reading for all seeking to understand Latin American history and society and the lives of indigenous people in the aftermath of violence." -- Daniel Goldstein, Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University "A beautifully written and deeply engaged book about indigenous people who, during war, experienced revolutionary mobilization, massacre, para-militarization, and displacement, and, 'after war,' confront migration, gangs, tourism, development, and lynching. In this, Todos Santos is a microcosm of the last fifty years of Guatemala's history, and Burrell's two decades of fieldwork afford readers a lovely and nuanced sense of people and place. Richly personal accounts mesh easily with rigorous analysis... Local struggles over authority and resources mesh with more national and global forces in ways that make this very traditional place completely cosmopolitan, and [the struggles] continue to simmer-tendrilling into the postwar, sometimes emerging as acts of horrifying violence and grievous remorse. This is a profound and essential exploration of identity, sovereignty, organizing, and struggles over generational and gendered authority, as well as of anthropology itself." -- Diane M. Nelson, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Women's Studies, Duke University

A compelling study of a Guatemalan village, in the wake of civil war and genocide, facing an uneasy transition marked by gang violence, paramilitary security committees, and other power struggles.

Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil war culminated in peace accords in 1996, but the postwar transition has been marked by continued violence, including lynchings and the rise of gangs, as well as massive wage-labor exodus to the United States. For the Mam Maya municipality of Todos Santos Cuchumatán, inhabited by a predominantly indigenous peasant population, the aftermath of war and genocide resonates with a long-standing tension between state techniques of governance and ancient community-level power structures that incorporated concepts of kinship, gender, and generation. Showing the ways in which these complex histories are interlinked with wartime and enduring family/class conflicts, Maya after War provides a nuanced account of a unique transitional postwar situation, including the complex influence of neoliberal intervention.

Drawing on ethnographic field research over a twenty-year period, Jennifer L. Burrell explores the after-war period in a locale where community struggles span culture, identity, and history. Investigating a range of tensions from the local to the international, Burrell employs unique methodologies, including mapmaking, history workshops, and an informal translation of a historic ethnography, to analyze the role of conflict in animating what matters to Todosanteros in their everyday lives and how the residents negotiate power. Examining the community-based divisions alongside national postwar contexts, Maya after War considers the aura of hope that surrounded the signing of the peace accords, and the subsequent doubt and waiting that have fueled unrest, encompassing generational conflicts. This study is a rich analysis of the multifaceted forces at work in the quest for peace, in Guatemala and beyond.